Get out of that hole! DIY seat risers...

Am I the only one who wishes the seat was lower? I'm 5'11" and the rear view mirror blocks my view....

 

Jack that mirror up.

 

Is that possible? I tried to push it up but it won't budge, just pivot.

 

Not sure if it will work in a 3rd gen, but I have an ImMrYo bracket in mine. Works great.

 

I'll have to look closer, maybe there's a screw holding it firm I can loosen to adjust.

 

Like a. earlier poster said, TW member ImMrYo makes a nice looking bracket. On some models all you have to do to raise it is rotate the mirror 180 degrees.

 

This is a very common thing to do with Jeeps. Apparently they dropped the seats an inch and a half around ten years ago to properly position where the airbags would hit the occupants. Consequently its hard for the average person to see well over the hood when wheeling. Anyhow, a set I installed for a friend last year used rectangular machined risers that were about 1-1/2" long and around 1" wide. The holes were drilled to tightly fit the bolts without any slop. I dont recall what grade bokt they used. Overall it looked fairy solid. I definitely wouldn't use bushings that are built more like narrow towers or anything that didn't tightly fit the bolt.

 

Did this to my driver's seat using the parts mentioned by the OP; except I wanted a bigger footprint against the body and rail so I used a 1/2" steel spacer and two big steel washers on top and below the spacer. Overall it's maybe a mm shy of 3/4" but close enough.

 

I too am 5'11 and I also wish the seat could be lower. I have a sunroof and my head is nowhere near the headline like others have complained about but overall I just feel like I am sitting too high compared to where the steering wheel and dash is placed. I wish I could drop the seat an inch rather than raise it. I also have the skewp and have zero issues seeing over like others have complained about as well. I still can't believe in 2016 the Tacoma still does not have power seats.

 

Great write up!

My .02:

I dont know what hardware you used so this may be for other people that do it. I would definitely suggest using equal or preferably higher grade bolts and add blue locktite and try to torque to original amount..i would use high quality bolts, not lowes hardware...during a bad wreck, something may/will happen there. The goal is to only have it bent the bolts and crush your spacers at most (not shear off)..

 

Just an FYI, a metric grade 8.8 is the equivalent of SAE grade 5 and metric grade 10.9 is the equivelent of SAE grade 8. A better solution would be a fat spacer that spreads the load of the mounting part of the seat bracket so that it will not over leverage the bolt and weaken the floor. Use grade 10.9 shoulder bolts from Fastenal or similar source.

I've seen this happen as I've been building lift kits for seats for my trucks for over 20 years and have actually seen the sheet metal crack over time. I'm 5' 10" and have weighed a shade over 200lbs. for most of that time. Also, I've done the front and rear mounts on all of my Toyotas over the years, and there is a solution to raising the front with 1/2" plate steel, but it's a bit ugly unless you take the time to fab a nice bracket.

 

I'm actually thinking about replacing the spacers with washers for that reason; unless I can find some spacers/pucks like the Rough Country seat risers for the jeeps.

 

I usually just holesaw some 3/4 stock and then finish up on a bench grinder.

 

Update: I swapped the 1/2" spacers with 3/8" spacers several days ago and like this better. With the washers, it totals out to just a little shy of 1/2". The 3/4" setup sets the seat about level and I'd sometimes slide forward on the seat. At 1/2" the aft section of the seat is a little lower and don't get that feeling of sliding forward on the seat.


Edit: Used shorter bolts as well. M10x40x1.25 grade 10.9 flange bolts.

 

I am 5'9" 195 lbs 34" inseam and I wish I could lower the rear of the seat. Sits to flat for me if I raised the rear if feel like I was sliding forward. Trying to figure out how to raise the front. May have to machine some parts to deal with the offset of the bolts after raising.

 

Hey mjbuck and jjardina, besides trying to position the steering wheel as far up as it goes, do you think it will help to pull it out as well. This may give you a little more room. My 2 cents...

 

This was a several thousand dollar mistake on my part. I'm 6', 32" inseam I think, 200lbs. Never owned a taco before, just jeeps and recently 2015 Ram 2500 - all solid axles and ride really rough on washboard and city roads. I sold that Ram, thinking this taco would do it all - daily driving, parking lots, rock crawling in Sedona and Florence, and easy dirt road driving all over the rest of the state. BIG Plans. But, this truck kills my back and hips after about 20 minutes. I've had a back injury, but other than the hard jolts to the spine from my solid axle vehicles, I've never had a backache like this before - never. I can't drive this truck. And that mirror does certainly get in the way.

Colorado rides nice and has much better front seats - I may consider the zr2 but otherwise it's back to full size for me.

This sucks bad as I had it alllll planned out. 2017 TRD 4x4 Off Road for sale!

 

For those wondering, biggest issue with using the bolts isnt the tensile strength (where even grade 5 will do), its the shear strength. Safety specs usually say something along the lines of 50% strength reduction in shear, so the reason for using a high grade bolt is to bring up the shear resistance. On top of that, static loads are nothing... its when you slam into a wall and you have upwards of 10x the static load being applied in an impulse that you start snapping things.

That said, seatbelt hardware is 10.9 / grade 8. Use those in the appropriate length and you will be *fine* (again, Im covering my ass like the other guy said about insurance... if you get anything medical related and its your fault, your ins. carrier can easily cancel your coverage).

 

haven't gone through the thread, but are the new bolts the same grade or stronger than the stock bolts? My concern for people doing this mod is in an accident, weaker bolts can sheer...